One hundred seconds left. Amy watched the red numbers on the illuminated dial on her wrist: Ninety-two seconds now. Ninety, before her ride would come and she could get out of this place completely undetected. That was the plan, at least.

Amy felt the small lump in the front pocket of her vest. She'd gone through a lot of training and planning to get the information on this flashdrive, and she hoped it was worth it. She was on a job now for another job, in the future.

She had quickly and masterfully extracted the data from the office of the Director of State Infrastructure, if she did say so herself. It contained the blueprints for the new high-security commercial vault being built on Raddley Street, a couple dozen blocks away. Amy had a man on the inside, posing as one of the electricians for the build. She'd already gotten an idea of the building layout from him and—crucially—all the lines fitted to power security cameras and any other security measures placed around the vaults. The plans she had in her pocket right now were additional insurance, in case the building owner had decided to conceal sensitive areas from his workers.

Amy checked her watch again. Sixty seconds. She wished she had given Claudia a lower estimate on extraction time. She was an excellent getaway driver, could weave between cars and slither through city streets like an agile snake. Amy had thought it would take a lot longer to crack the director's password and copy the data she needed. Decrypting the files first had been the real challenge, but even so it had taken less than three minutes with the code Amy's programmer had written to do the job. So here Amy was, minutes early to her rendezvous point with Claudia.

Amy peeked through the frosted windows of the back exit, keeping an eye out for the flash of headlights from Claudia's car. Two-one-two. That was the signal. The distant glow grew larger as Claudia approached. On Amy's watch, there were only fifteen seconds to go. As always, Claudia had arrived on the dot.

Standing, Amy pushed through the exit doors and was immediately rendered deaf by a high-pitched wail. The alarm. Amy pursed her lips but continued her sprint toward the car. Jared was supposed to have killed the security systems until just after the extraction window. What the hell happened?

"Stop!" a deep male voice thundered out over the screech of the alarm.

Amy glanced behind to see him unstrapping a Tazer from his belt. Shit. She sped up, grateful that Claudia had taken the initiative to open the passenger door for her. Leaping into the front seat, Amy heard the crackle of the Tazer. She yanked the door shut, fully expecting it to close too late.

She braced herself for the pain but felt only the lurch of the vehicle. Accompanying the screech of their tires was the loud clang of the electrified wires from the security guard's gun. They had hit the side of the car, which did nothing to slow them down.

In the rearview mirror, Amy saw the guard speaking rapidly into his radio, probably alerting the rest of the facility.

"You got a way out of this?" she asked Claudia. "They might be on the lookout at the exit points."

“Don't worry about it,” Claudia responded, unfazed. “Jared's on it.”

"Jared was supposed to be on the security alarms too," Amy stated dubiously.

"He's got this.” Claudia was adamant.

The car raced toward the brightly lit gate of the complex. A line of guards was forming in their path but Claudia showed no signs of slowing.

"You gonna run them down?" Amy asked uncertainly.

"Of course not."

At the exact moment she spoke, the world went dark. Only the car's headlights illuminated the path before them. The silhouettes of the mini army in front of them scattered, allowing Claudia to sail past the barrier and crash through the chainlink gate.

Amy sighed in relief as they coasted toward the highway. She patted the lump in her breast pocket again. Phase One complete.